Just for fun : The little icons in your camera manual

[ricktas]

canonicons.jpg

This is the icons that Canon use to describe the features of their G1x

Now I know it is all really just a bit of marketing that goes into these, but we have all become used to seeing them. Things like the HD logo and 4x optical zoom etc are common-place, but really what the hell are some of these other ones.

Movie Digest? What.. is there a Google search in the camera to look up movies and who starred in them?

And what about the one below Movie Digest. Little smillie face on LCD and an arrow. Are they instructing us to look for smilie faces and then press the shutter button? I thought it might mean face detection, but no, that is down a line and at the right hand end.

And at the right side of the line where movie digest is..is that a car and a building. WOW my camera can take photos of cars next to tall buildings..gee

Oh and look, it even has an icon to say it has a front dial.

Now please take this tongue in cheek, but really, do we need all of these??? and I am still stumped over what the car in front of the building really means

[kidazzle]

I know I'm reasonably new to photography and I certainly don't happen to know what most of these mean but...... I wonder how many of them are truly important?
Anyway, now I know why it seems to take such a long time before we feel we understand everything...afterall there's these icons plus the menus, plus the jargon plus all of the acronyms...plus, plus, plus.

However, I still think its great fun learning and the photos we take can give us such wonderful rewards.

[Ms Monny]

I have a slight feeling that the little car infront of the building is the 'miniture' effect. My 60D has filters in the camera I can use after I take the photo and that is one of them. I have never used them and prob never will....the filters are:

Grainy BW
Soft Focus
Toy Camera effect
and Miniture.

No, I don't think we need all these icons just to tell us what the camera does. I mean, a front dial icon?? Woo Hoo!! It has a front dial!! And????

[William]

@ Rick, You bought a Canon ? , I'd guess the icon with the car and building would be Landscape mode or Or you can take a shot in Portrait orientation

[Seabee]

BLINK DETECTION ................I never blink

[Bennymiata]

Gee, I didn't know my G1X has all these features.

I just use it to take photos and videos.

Does a good job too.

[ricktas]

thanks for the replies..you guys make me laugh at times. And Benny, I do not have a G1x, was looking at it for a friend. I do however have a Canon T-70 (flim) and a Canon IR converted point and shoot.

[OzzieTraveller]

G'day Ricki

And to top it all off [well maybe] I have the instruction book for my father's old top of the range, interchangeable-lens film camera from the 1960s. Sort of a Leica lookalike but not a Leica

The instruction book goes for 32 pages, nicely written, plenty of illustrations and white-space so that the text is not crowded - it has no hi-falutin' logos, just plain-speeek text like "to ensure a good result every time you take a photo, please hold your elbows close to the body and do not jerk the camera while pressing the shutter-release button g-e-n-t-l-y"

Yeah mate .... times have changed
Regards, Phil

[Mark L]

....and I am still stumped over what the car in front of the building really means

The building looks more like a recharged battery to me. So maybe you can you can do this in your car somehow.
I like the one below it, a camera!! What does this one mean? "Yep, you get this bonus icon 'cause you now own this camera"

[Film Street]

The building is a multi storey carpark and the car is actually a turtle.

This symbol signifies the 'building of an empire' mode where the top half of the image is more pronounced than the bottom half

[swifty]

Lol, I wonder how many logos made it as a sticker on the camera itself. This goes for all camera manufacturers actually.
It's like my LCD tv bezel. It was littered with logo stickers of its features. You'd think they only put those on the display unit in the shops.

[Ezookiel]

First icon second last row ... a movie camera and a ... ? monitor? Screen? I guess it means you can watch the movies you record. Oh good. I kind of imagine that being able to view what you record would be a selling point for all cameras.

"Movie Button" ... not a movie feature, but a movie button. Is that a separate shutter release if you're in movie mode?

"Smart Auto 32 Scenes" ... does it stop being smart after you've taken 32 different scenes?

"Handheld night scene" ... oh dear. I can see the results from that being far less than spectacular.

[Ms Monny]

No, trust me the building with the car is "miniture". I have it on my camera!!

[wanderer51]

No, trust me the building with the car is "miniture". I have it on my camera!!

Bugger!....And I was hoping it meant "Parking Available".

[achee]

LOL!!
Ah, these marketing people..... I wonder if they get teased in their own company.

[Bennymiata]

Where's the icon for -pulling out your hair when all your shots are rotten?

[Roosta]

Your just jealous Rick, just because Nik hasen't caught up yet. LOL

Yeah, but seriuosly, it's a P & S and isn't that what 99.5 (.1 more than Bradman) use it for?

Marketing (As you say) at it's best for people who think their getting a bargin due to all the little pic/icons.